Scottish Hill Climb Championship round

Kinkell, 23 Mar 1974

Notes on the cars:

1. GRD 273 [051-F2] (Doug Thomson): New to Tom Wheatcroft for driver Roger Williamson in F2 in 1973, and used as a T-car at the opening race. The two cars travelled in Wheatcroft's transporter, but at the start of the season were looked after by GRS International chief mechanic Alistair Dimmock. By June, the cars were run by the team's own mechanics, Rick Olivant, formerly with Surtees, and Trevor Foster from Gerard Racing. If it is correct that chassis 052 was destroyed in Williamson's accident in practice at Nivelles-Baulers, then 051 was the team's unused spare after Wheatcroft bought a new March 732. To Doug Thomson for 1974, and fitted with a Ford BDA for Formula Atlantic and hillclimbs. Badly damaged when crashed in practice at Oulton Park in October 1974, and Thomson recalls that the tub was a write off. He acquired a new tub from GRD over the winter and rebuilt the car. It was then sold early in 1975 as a rolling chassis to dealer Mike Gue, who Doug believes sold the car to someone in South Africa. It appears however, that the car went to North America, where it was next seen being raced by Russell Thomson (Vancouver, BC, Canada) in the ICSCC's Formula B class in 1979. It then passed to Graeme Hutton (Vancouver, BC) who raced it in one late-season 1979 event and at least once in 1980, again in ICSCC Formula B. Bought from Hutton in 1990 by Robert Morris (Seattle, WA) and stored at his workshop since then.
2. Hawke DL6A [1] (Ted Dzierzek): New for John Day for British Formula Atlantic in 1971, entered by Chris Tennant. Day announced the car in April, but the first known appearance was at Castle Combe on 12 June, where he failed to start the Formula Atlantic race but later finished third in a Formule Libre race. He also appeared at Oulton Park in July, but spun off at Cascades during the Formula Atlantic race and his engine dropped a valve before the Formule Libre race. He was not seen after that until the end of September the following year, when he made a couple more appearances. The car was sold to Ted Dzierzek (Kirkliston, Edinburgh, Scotland) who entered it as a Hawke Atlantic in hillclimbs and Formule Libre races in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Dzierzek moved to an ex-F3 Ensign for 1976, and the Hawke was advertised by Bobby Howlings' Cheshire Sports Cars Ltd (Congleton, Cheshire) in March 1976 as a 1972 Atlantic car with Holbay twin cam engine. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Hillman Imp (Barrogill Angus): Barrogill Angus (Thurso, Scotland) raced a "Shannon Imp" in Scottish hillclimbs from 1972 to 1974, a Hillman Imp with Shannon-tuned 998cc Imp engine in the under 1000cc special saloon class. In 1973, the car was said to be ex-Tony Charnell (MN 21 Jun 1973 p28).
4. Palliser WDH1 [AM70/61] (David Fyfe): Built for Mike MacDowel (Godalming, Surrey) and fitted with a Repco 740 V8 Formula 1 engine. Raced by MacDowel in British hillclimbs in 1971, winning both the Doune rounds of the RAC championship, in June and in September. For a part of the season the engine capacity was enlarged to 4.2 litres by fitting the crank and rods from the 5-litre version of the engine. MacDowel acquired a new Brabham BT36X for 1972 and the Palliser was sold to Peter Voigt (Haywards Heath, Sussex), who continued to use it in hillclimbs with the 4.2-litre Repco. Voigt advertised the car at the end of 1972, but it was not seen again until the start of the 1974 season, when it had moved to Scotland and was being shared by David Fyfe and Alex Brown, both from Edinburgh. Raced by them in 1974 and 1975. For 1976, the car was acquired by veteran Bryan Eccles (Solihull, Warwickshire), who was returning to the sport ofter quite a few years. He raced it at Wiscombe Park in April 1976, the opening round of the RAC championship, but crashed heavily, severely injuring his legs. The wrecked Palliser chassis was acquired by Tim Cameron and repaired by cutting off the damaged front section and welding on a Formula Ford Palliser. He then ran the car in hillclimbs, still with the Repco engine, until an accident at Shelsley Walsh. He then sold the Repco engine to Dave Bishop, but could not recall who bought the chassis from his advert in Exchange & Mart. In November 1980, an "ex-Formula 5000" Palliser was advertised from phone numbers in Worthing and Littlehampton with 1600cc crossflow engine. A later German HVIF stated that this car was owned by Roger Hurst ("Hourst") and later by "K,Heinz Wagner, Eppelborn-Dirmingen". The car was registered as a "WDA/1" by Helmut Reuscher in December 1999.
5. Ford Escort (Robin Kinnear): Robin Kinnear ran a Gancia-sponsored Escort t/c in the over 1000cc Special Saloon class at Kinkell and Fintray in 1973. The car was destroyed at Doune in June 1974.
6. Palliser WDH1 [AM70/61] (Alex Brown): Built for Mike MacDowel (Godalming, Surrey) and fitted with a Repco 740 V8 Formula 1 engine. Raced by MacDowel in British hillclimbs in 1971, winning both the Doune rounds of the RAC championship, in June and in September. For a part of the season the engine capacity was enlarged to 4.2 litres by fitting the crank and rods from the 5-litre version of the engine. MacDowel acquired a new Brabham BT36X for 1972 and the Palliser was sold to Peter Voigt (Haywards Heath, Sussex), who continued to use it in hillclimbs with the 4.2-litre Repco. Voigt advertised the car at the end of 1972, but it was not seen again until the start of the 1974 season, when it had moved to Scotland and was being shared by David Fyfe and Alex Brown, both from Edinburgh. Raced by them in 1974 and 1975. For 1976, the car was acquired by veteran Bryan Eccles (Solihull, Warwickshire), who was returning to the sport ofter quite a few years. He raced it at Wiscombe Park in April 1976, the opening round of the RAC championship, but crashed heavily, severely injuring his legs. The wrecked Palliser chassis was acquired by Tim Cameron and repaired by cutting off the damaged front section and welding on a Formula Ford Palliser. He then ran the car in hillclimbs, still with the Repco engine, until an accident at Shelsley Walsh. He then sold the Repco engine to Dave Bishop, but could not recall who bought the chassis from his advert in Exchange & Mart. In November 1980, an "ex-Formula 5000" Palliser was advertised from phone numbers in Worthing and Littlehampton with 1600cc crossflow engine. A later German HVIF stated that this car was owned by Roger Hurst ("Hourst") and later by "K,Heinz Wagner, Eppelborn-Dirmingen". The car was registered as a "WDA/1" by Helmut Reuscher in December 1999.
7. Brabham BT35 (Bob Snelson): In March 1974, Bob Snelson (Fife, Scotland) raced a Brabham BT35 at Kinkell, in the opening round of the Scottish Hillclimb championship. That is the only known appearance of Snelson in the BT35. The identity of his car is unknown, and the Kinkell results sheet gives no further clues, such as its engine capacity. Snelson's previous car, a Brabham BT23C, had gone to Low Cost Racing by this time, so we can rule out the BT35 being an upgraded BT23C. Apart from BT35/44, which was still being raced by Jim Campbell in 1974, the only other BT35 with Scottish history was the ex-Nick Williamson/Iain McLaren BT35X, but this car had been with George Dixon in Lincolnshire in 1973. Another possibility is Bob Marsland's hillclimb BT35, which would have been sold less engine after the 1973 season when Marsland bought a new Chevron B27. In July 1974, Robert Sunderland (Keighley, West Yorkshire) and his regular co-driver Peter Kaye (Wetherby, West Yorkshire) appeared in a relatively minor Lothian Car Club Sprint at Ingliston. This was the only time Sunderland and Kaye are known to have appeared north of the border, so could they have been taking delivery of the BT35 from Snelson? That would tie in with previous suggestions that Sunderland and Kaye had the ex-Marsland car.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.

Individual sources for this event

AS 28 Mar 1974 p51, MN 28 Mar 1974 p22